Start with this—the Bucks are not trading Brandon Jennings before Thursday’s 3 p.m. ET trade deadline. When Milwaukee made the deal that sent Andrew Bogut and Stephen Jackson to Golden State for Monta Ellis, Ekpe Udoh and Kwame Brown, a source close to the situation told Sporting News, it was with every intention of giving Ellis and Jennings a chance to play together.

That’s not to say all that won’t change down the line. Jennings is eligible for an extension this offseason, and Ellis can opt out of his contract after next year. But for the short-term, at least, the Bucks are willing to see how they fare with what should be one of the highest scoring backcourts in the league. With Bogut out for much of the year with an ankle injury, and out until the end of March at the least, the Bucks have already been playing a quicker style of small ball. Expect the pace to quicken even more, and expect Udoh to be part of that.

“I think that it will,” general manager John Hammond said. “I think that since Andrew’s been out, we have been playing at a more up-tempo pace, a faster style of play and obviously you add Monta to that. The other part of running, though, is you can’t run without the ball. I think Ekpe is going to help us in that regard. We needed to increase and help our interior defense. This guy is going to be a very good goaltender for us. A guy who can protect the basket like that is going to help us on the defensive end and getting stops like that, we can get out, run, push it. I think it will be a fun, exciting style of play to watch.”

It could very well be enough to push the Bucks into the Eastern Conference playoffs, though that might come as a surprise to Ellis. After learning that he was traded to Milwaukee, Ellis told reporters in Sacramento that he had figured if the Warriors were to trade him, it would be to a playoff team. He was duly informed that the Bucks are very much in the postseason hunt.

“When I said that last night, it was more out of, I didn’t know where we stood,” Ellis said. “I’m in the West, this is the East. So I really didn’t pay too much attention about the wins and losses. I was just paying attention to the team I was on, about our wins and losses and where we was trying to head. But then last night after I said that, and went back and looked at the standings, and after coach Skiles called me, he said the same thing, I had to tell him, I didn’t know. Now we’re in the eighth spot, we can get to rolling.”

A backcourt of Ellis (6-3) and Jennings (6-1) is, obviously, undersized on the defensive end, which was a problem for the Warriors when Ellis was paired with the 6-3 Stephen Curry. But, as a duo, their offense could match the great Milwaukee backcourt of the early 2000s, when the Bucks had Ray Allen and Sam Cassell. It’s a nice memory—that Bucks team went to the Eastern Conference finals and took the Sixers to a Game 7—but Ellis wants to temper expectations when it comes to he and Jennings.

“I am not going to say we’re going to be Sam Cassell and Ray Allen, but we’re going to do some great things,” he said.